Evaluation of the tourist demand in Management Plans for UNESCO sites: the case of the Cinque Terre Park (Italy)

Management plans for UNESCO sites are characterized as a fundamental innovation in the perspective of a sustainable and integrated development of the important realities that constitute the World Heritage List (WHL). Consequently, a correct management of this reality is able to constitute an important starting point to determine development dynamics founded on material aspects (monuments, landscapes, typical products, etc.) and on immaterial aspects (the culture, the identity of the places). Of fundamental importance for a correct management of a UNESCO site is the analysis of the tourist demand, in order that the tourist flows produce wealth for the safeguarding, exploitation and development of the local community. The analysis method of the stated preferences by tourists, through the technique of the choice modelling (CM), results be one of the methodology, that in the last years has been taking more and more importance in the evaluation of the environmental, landscape and historical-cultural heritage. By means of such technique, based on interviews and econometric models, it is possible to draw the Total Economic Value (VET) of the analysed heritage. The Cinque Terre Park turns out to be, within Italy, one of the mostly valued destinations for tourists from all over the world; besides, the park, being listed in the World Heritage List, as cultural landscape, is characterized as an important source of values, that has necessarily to be protected and valorised. The application of the Choice Modelling technique to this reality results be a decision support tool for the choices oriented to a correct management of the patrimony.